Foresters wing pair strike to sink Greens

But the manner and the extent of their victory was perhaps less expected.

The home side’s five-try bonus-point win, while testimony to their eagerness to attack and their scampering finish wide out which brought wingers Lloyd Stapleton and Nevarro Codlin a brace of tries apiece, rather flattered Cinderford’s inconsistent play.

Wharfedale led soon after the break when lock Richard Brown was driven over from a corner lineout maul but they fell away as the hosts scored 19 points in a ragged last quarter.

The Greens were for once beaten at their own core game with home flanker Will Foden excellent at the break-down and the source of consistent turnover ball.

Loose defending by both sets of backs – especially in the face of counter-attack play was largely the order of the day.

Wharfedale were called on to dig deep at the start, doing well to repulse two furious drives at the line, before some fine control handling across the face of the posts produced an overlap try for Stapleton, converted by Rory Teague.

Wharfedale levelled with a fine sweeping try when a long run out of defence by Tom Davidson saw Luke Gray hand on for James Tincknell to canter home, allowing Davidson a simple conversion, leaving the sides locked at 7-7 at the break.

The Greens lacked the authority in their play to capitalise on their brief ascendancy as play resumed though they recovered a marginal lead with a snap drop-goal by fly-half Tom Barrett.

Stapleton gathered a loose ball for his second try, and a scuttling tap-penalty enabled Codling to cross. The hectic final minutes produced a yellow card apiece and a fifth home try by hooker Sam Wilkes, who caught the eye with a number of barnstorming ball-carrying runs.